One-Way Public Relationships

ABSTRACT

Techniques are described to establish one-way public relationships. In an implementation, a service manager module is usable to configure a webpage for output to a client over a network to provide to a user of the client an indication of others users that are part of a social network of the user and have establishes one-way public relationships, respectively, with another user corresponding to an object of a social networking service available from a service provider. In addition, a relation module is configured to establish a one-way public relationship between the user of the client and the other user corresponding to the object without establishing a mutual friend relationship between the user and the other user. In an implementation, the one-way public relationship is established in response to user selection of a control that is presented on the webpage that is output at the client in conjunction with the object.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of, and claims priority to, U.S.patent application Ser. No. 12/498,279, filed on Jul. 6, 2009, theentire disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein.

BACKGROUND

The popularity of social networking via online networking sites is everincreasing. One way that people use social networking sites is to shareinformation such as recommendations, pictures, videos, notes,discussions, and so forth on profile pages.

Sometimes, a user may come across an object (person, group, or thing) ona social networking page that they like and would like to expressinterest in. Using a traditional approach, the user may establish amutual friend relationship with the object to add the object to theuser's social network and then provide input to become a fan of theobject. By establishing the mutual friend relationship with the object,the user enables reciprocal access to the user's social networkinformation, such as posted pictures and profile information. This maybe alright with the user if the owner of the object is a close friend ofthe user's. However, in some instances the user may just want to be afan of a public object (e.g., a rock band, author, book, business)without becoming friends with the object or a corresponding owner. Assuch, privacy concerns with the traditional approach may inhibit usersfrom becoming fans of public objects.

SUMMARY

Techniques are described to establish one-way public relationships forsocial networking. In an implementation, a control is exposed that isoperable to become a fan of an object within a social networking page.Responsive to operation of the control by a user, data may be stored toestablish a one-way public relationship between the user and theselected object. By establishing a one-way public relationship ratherthan a mutual friend relationship, the object and/or a correspondingowner of the object is not included in the user's social network and isnot provided access to the user's profile, status, or other personalinformation. The one-way public relationship may be employed by aservice provider to serve content and/or ads related to the object tothe user. The one-way public relationships may also be employed by theservice provider to push status updates regarding the object to “fans”of the object without establishing mutual friend relationships betweenthe fans and the object.

This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in asimplified form that are further described below in the DetailedDescription. This Summary is not intended to identify key features oressential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended tobe used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subjectmatter.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The detailed description is described with reference to the accompanyingfigures. In the figures, the left-most digit(s) of a reference numberidentifies the figure in which the reference number first appears. Theuse of the same reference numbers in different instances in thedescription and the figures may indicate similar or identical items.

FIG. 1 is an illustration of an environment in an example implementationthat is operable to provide one-way public relationships.

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram depicting a procedure in an exampleimplementation in which a one-way public relationship is established.

FIG. 3 is an example webpage configured to enable one way publicrelationships in accordance with one or more embodiments.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram depicting a procedure in an exampleimplementation in which a webpage is configured based upon one-waypublic relationships.

FIG. 5 is an illustration of an example web page configured based uponone-way public relationships.

FIG. 6 is an illustration of another example web page configured basedupon one-way public relationships.

FIG. 7 is an illustration of an example device in accordance with one ormore embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Overview

A user may come across an object (person, group, or thing) on a socialnetworking page that they like and would like to express interest in. Todo so using a traditional approach, the user may establish a mutualfriend relationship with the object that adds the object to the user'ssocial network. Since a mutual friend relationship with the objectenables access to the user's private social network information, someusers may be reluctant to establish mutual friend relationships withpublic entities such as bands, businesses, and social organizations.

Techniques are described to establish one-way public relationship in asocial networking environment. In an implementation, a control isexposed within a social networking page that is operable to become a fanof an object. Responsive to operation of the control by a user, data maybe stored to establish a one-way public relationship between the userand the selected object. By establishing a one-way public relationshipinstead of a mutual friend relationship, the object and/or acorresponding owner of the object are not included in the user's socialnetwork and are not provided access to the user's profile, status, orother personal information. The user is able, however, to obtain contentand/or status updates related to the object based on the one-way publicrelationship.

For example, Steve may have a social networking account through aservice provider that enables Steve to interact with a group of friends.This may include sharing favorite objects one to another, such as musicgroups, movies, and books. To select favorite objects, Steve maynavigate to various webpages provided by the service provider and makeselections of the objects. A user who has selected a favorite object maybe referred to herein as a “fan” of the object.

For example, Steve may notice that some of his friends have become fansof the band “U2”. Steve then navigates to a profile page for the band“U2” using the social networking account. The profile page for “U2”exposes a portion that is selectable by Steve to add “U2” to hisfavorite objects. For example, a control, such as an “Add” button, maybe exposed that is selectable to enable Steve to become a fan of “U2”(e.g., add “U2” as a favorite object). Steve may decide that he wants toadd the band “U2” as one of his favorite bands.

When Steve clicks on the “Add” button, a relation module operates toestablish a social networking relationship between Steve and “U2”. In atleast some embodiments, the control is operable by a single-click toestablish a one-way public relationship between Steve and “U2”. Forinstance, a one-way public relationship may be established usingaccounts with the service provider corresponding to Steve and/or “U2”.Based on this relationship, Steve may be able to post on “U2's” profilepage, and obtain content and/or status updates related to “U2” based onthe one-way public relationship. The one-way public relationship mayalso be employed by the service provider to serve content and/or adsrelated to “U2” to Steve's account across various services. The one-waypublic relationship may further be employed by the service provider topush status updates for “U2” to Steve's account. A mutual friendrelationship is not established between Steve and “U2” in this instance.Accordingly, “U2” is not provided reciprocal access to Steve's socialnetwork and related information and is not added to Steve's contacts.

In the discussion that follows, a section entitled “Example Environment”describes an example environment and devices, which may be employed toprovide one-way public relationships in various embodiments. Followingthis, a section entitled “One-Way Public Relationship Examples”describes example techniques and user interfaces related to one-waypublic relationships in accordance with one or more embodiments. Last, asection entitled “Example Devices” is provided and describes exampledevices that can be used to implement one or more embodiments.

Example Environment

FIG. 1 is an illustration of an example environment 100 that is operableto provide one-way public relationships. The illustrated environmentincludes one or more service providers 102, one or more clients 104, andone or more content providers 106 that are communicatively coupled, oneto another, over a network 108. Although the network 108 is illustratedas the Internet, the network may assume a wide variety ofconfigurations. For example, the network 108 may include a wide areanetwork (WAN), a local area network (LAN), a wireless network, a publictelephone network, an intranet, and so on. Further, although a singlenetwork 108 is shown, the network 108 may be configured to includemultiple networks.

For the purposes of the following discussion, a referenced component,such as service provider 102, may refer to one or more entities, andtherefore by convention reference may be made to a single entity (e.g.,the service provider 102) or multiple entities (e.g., the serviceproviders 102, the plurality of service providers 102, and so on) usingthe same reference number.

The service provider 102 may have one or more processors 110 and memory112. Service provider 102 is depicted as storing a service managermodule 114 in the memory 112 that is executable via the one or moreprocessors 110. Service manager module 114 represents functionalityoperable by service provider 102 to manage various services 116 that maybe made available over the network 108. For example, various services116 may be provided via webpages 118, or other user interfaces, that arecommunicated over the network for output by the one or more clients 104.Service manager module 114 may manage access to the services 116,performance of the services 116, configuration of the webpages 118 toprovide the services 116, and so on.

Some examples of services 116 include, but are not limited to, a searchservice, an e-mail service to send and receive e-mail, instant messagingservice to provide instant messages between clients 104, and a socialnetwork service to facilitate connections and interactions betweengroups of users who share common interests and activities. The socialnetwork service may assist users in connecting to a group, provide avariety ways for users to interact (e.g., group e-mail, website, blog,messaging) and provide recommendations to the groups based on sharedinterests and activities. In at least some embodiments, social networkservice may also be configured for selection of favorite objects inaccordance with techniques described herein. At least some objects maybe selected and associated with users using one-way publicrelationships. Service provider 102 may leverage the one-way publicrelationships to serve content, updates, ads and so forth related to anobject to fans of object across the various services 116. Additionalexamples of services 116 include a shopping service, a weblog service,productivity service, authentication service, a news service, and anadvertisement service to name a few.

The authentication service may be provided by the service manager module114 to authenticate clients to access various services 116 that may beprovided by one or more of the service providers 102. For example, aclient 104 may provide a username and password that is authenticated bythe authentication service. When the authentication is successful, theauthentication service may pass a token to enable access tocorresponding services 116. Authentication of the client 104 to anaccount may provide access to a single corresponding service provider102 and/or service 116. Additionally or alternatively, a singleauthentication (e.g., a single sign-on) may correspond to many services116, such that authentication to a single account provides access tomany service providers 102 and/or to an entire suite of services 116.

Service manager module 114 may also manage an accounts database 120 thatmay be configured to store a variety of data related to user accountswith the one or more service providers 102. By way of example and notlimitation, accounts database 120 is depicted as storing accountidentifiers 122 that may be used for authentication and access control(e.g., unique account IDs, usernames, passwords, and so on), relationdata 124 that may define favorite objects, friends, and relationshipsassociated with user accounts, and profile data 126 that may describeuser settings, preferences, and personal pages accessible through asocial networking service and/or other services 116. A variety of otherdata 128 is also contemplated, including service authorizations, userpreferences, program files such as documents and spreadsheets maintainedonline, and other data typically associated with user accounts.

Service provider 102 is also depicted as storing a relation module 130in memory 112 that is executable via the one or more processors 110 toimplement aspects of techniques for one-way public relationshipsdescribed herein. In an embodiment, functionality represented by therelation module 130 may be implemented as an application programminginterface (API) that may be made accessible to the clients 104 over thenetwork 108.

The one or more clients 104 are depicted as having one or moreprocessors 132 and memory 134. Memory 134 is depicted as storing anotherrelation module 130 that may be deployed to the client 104 and isexecutable via the one or more processors 132 to implement “client-side”aspects of one-way public relationships herein. In an embodiment,functionality represented by the relation module 130 may be implementedas a script that is included with a webpage 118 provided by the serviceprovider 102.

To enable various communications over the network 108, the one or moreclients 104 may also include a communication module 136. Communicationmodule 136 is depicted as being stored in memory 134 and is alsoexecutable via the processor 132 to provide various interactions withservice providers 102 and/or services 116. Examples of such interactionsinclude, but are not limited to, communicating one to another,navigating content, searching webpages, accessing services 116,interacting with a social networking site, performing searches, instantmessaging, e-mail, and so forth. Communication module 136 may beimplemented as a browser or other suitable application to obtain andoutput webpages 118 from the service provider 102 over the network 108.Communication module 136 may also represent a component of anotherapplication used to obtain one or more services 116 from the serviceproviders 102. For example, communication module 136 may be configuredas a component of a desktop social networking application of a client104.

As noted above, content, updates, and/or ads may be served to clients104 based at least in part upon one-way public relationships establishedbetween the client's and objects. Content may be from the serviceprovider 102 and/or from third party sources, such as the one or morecontent providers 106 depicted in the environment 100. The one or morecontent providers 106 are depicted as having one or more processors 138and memory 140. Memory 140 may store a variety of content 142 that maybe selectively provided to the client 104 based upon relationships tofavorite objects. Examples of content 142 include but are not limited toalbum audio/video clips, webpages, artwork, band images, book images,artist/author pictures, descriptions, content metadata (e.g., dates,filenames, chapters, titles, author, notes, publisher, source), fansdata and demographics, and so forth. Memory 104 is further illustratedas storing advertisements 144, which may also be selectively provided tothe client 104 based upon relationships to favorite objects. Variousadvertisements are contemplated including banner ads, audio/video ads,pop-up ads, and so forth. The content 142 and advertisements 144 may beprovided in conjunction with a plurality of services 102 provided to auser by the service provider 102.

Having considered devices and components of an example environment,consider now example techniques and user interfaces for one-way publicrelationships that may be implemented in the environment using theexample components, as well as in other environments.

One-Way Public Relationship Examples

The following discussion describes example techniques and userinterfaces for one-way public relationships that may be implementedutilizing the previously described systems and devices. Aspects of theprocedures described below may be implemented in hardware, firmware,software, or a combination thereof The procedures are shown as a set ofblocks that specify operations performed by one or more devices and arenot necessarily limited to the orders shown for performing theoperations by the respective blocks. In portions of the followingdiscussion, reference may be made to the example environment 100 of FIG.1.

FIG. 2 depicts a procedure 200 in an example implementation in which aservice provider enables creation of one-way public relationships withobjects in a social network. In at least some embodiments, procedure 200may be performed by a suitably configured service provider, such asservice provider 102 of FIG. 1 having a relation module 130. In thediscussion of FIG. 2 that follows, reference may be made to the examplewebpage depicted in FIG. 3.

A webpage is presented to a client that includes an object of a socialnetworking service (block 202). For example, a user such as Steve in theexample above may interact with a communication module 136 of a client104 to obtain webpages 118 from a service provider 102. Steve mayutilize an account with the service provider 102 to access webpages 118corresponding to various services 116. In at least some embodiments, thewebpages 118 may be exposed in the course of Steve's interaction with asocial networking service available from the service provider 102.Service provider 102 may execute a service manager module 114 and/or arelation module 130 to provide the interaction with the socialnetworking service, as well as other services 116.

The social networking service may enable interaction with variousobjects. The objects may be associated with other users, groups, profilepages, user accounts, things (images, art, songs, books, posts,products) and so forth. Generally, an object has an owner (e.g., a bookhas an author, albums have a band, and so on) and may be associated withan account of the owner with the service provider 102. The objects maybe accessible though social networking pages of the corresponding ownersand/or through various other webpages 118 output by the service provider102 in the course of providing services 116 to clients 104. For example,Steve may navigate to a profile page corresponding to the band “FooFighters” that has various objects including objects for the band,albums of the band, songs of the band, album art work, and postings ofthe band, to name a few.

Referring now to FIG. 3, an implementation 300 is illustrated showing anexample webpage 118 that is operable to enable one-way publicrelationships. The webpage 118 in this instance is illustrated asincorporated within a user interface 302 that may be provided by thecommunication module 136. For example, the communication module 136 maybe configured as a browser operable to expose the user interface 302 toenable interaction with one or more service providers 102 andcorresponding services 116. To provide the interaction with services116, the user interface 302 includes a menu bar 304, an address bar 306,and a navigation portion 308. The menu bar 304 is a portion of the userinterface 302 that includes drop-down menus of commands, examples ofwhich are illustrated as “file,” “edit,” “favorites,” “tools,” and“help.” The address bar 306 is configured to receive inputs to navigateto particular network addresses and/or display current networkaddresses, from which, the client 104 has received content that is beingdisplayed. The navigation portion 308 may be operable to navigate tointeract with a service provider 102 in various ways including selectingvarious services 116, performing for webpages 118, obtaining differentwebpages 118 corresponding to a social networking service, and so forth.

In the example of FIG. 3, the webpage 118 within the user interface 302is configured as profile page for the band “Foo Fighters” that may beexposed to Steve via social networking service, music service, or otherservices 116 from the service provider 102. Although depicted as beingpart of the user interface 302 of a browser, a user interface comparableto the webpage 118 may also be provided by standalone applications ofthe client 104, such as a desktop social networking application. In eachcase, the webpage 118 may make use of a relation module 130 configuredto enable one-way public relationships discussed herein.

A control is exposed that is operable to establish a one-way publicrelationship with the object (block 204). For instance, throughinteraction with various webpages 118, Steve may make selections tobecome a fan of objects in a social networking environment. Variouscontrols selectable to cause a one-way relationship to be establishedwith corresponding objects may be exposed within webpages 118 inconjunction with the objects. The controls may be configured in avariety of ways. By way of example and not limitation, a control may beconfigured as a button, selectable text, an icon, a menu item, oranother suitable control exposed via the webpage 118.

In particular, the example webpage 118 in FIG. 3 is depicted as havingan add control 310 that appears in the profile page for “Foo Fighters”.The text “Become a Fan” appears by the add control 310. Steve may selectthe add control 310 to initiate creation of a fan relationship with the“Foo Fighters”. Additionally or alternatively, the text “Become a Fan”may be selectable to create the fan relationship. In accordance withtechniques described herein, the add control 310 and/other suitablecontrols may be configured to establish a one-way public relationshipwith a corresponding object.

Note that a fans list 312 of the webpage 118 is also illustrated thatpresents Steve with a list of friends in his social network that arefans of the “Foo Fighters”. The fans list 312 may be configured basedupon friends associated with Steve and the one-way public relationshipsestablished between those friends and the “Foo Fighters”. The fans list312 informs Steve about some of his friend's favorites and may assistSteve in deciding whether to become a fan himself

In addition, the webpage 118 may include various other content portionsrelated to the “Foo Fighters”. For example, FIG. 3 depicts examplecontent portions including a top songs list 314, an albums list 316 anda “what's new” portion 318 configured to present postings and statusupdates. Note that various other selectable controls (not shown) thatare configured to initiate creation of fan relationships, includingone-way public relationships, may be associated with and appear withother objects. For example, selectable controls operable to establishone-way public relationships may be associated with songs in the topsongs list 314, albums in the albums list 316, and/or with postings inthe “what's new” portion 318.

Responsive to operation of the control, the one-way public relationshipis established between the client and the object (block 206). Continuingthe preceding example, Steve may decide to become a fan of “FooFighters”. To do so, Steve may select the add control 310 exposed in theexample user interface 118 of FIG. 3. In this example, the add control310 is selectable to become a fan of the “Foo Fighters”, which mayinvolve establishing a one-way public relationship between Steve and“Foo Fighters”. Note that selectable controls may be configured tocreate different types of social networking relationships includingone-way public relationships and mutual friend relationships.

As noted, one-way public relationships enable a user to gain access to asocial network and related information of another party withoutproviding the other party with access to the user's own social networkor adding the other party to the user's contacts. In other words, therelationship is “one-way”. Further, the other party's acknowledgement ofthe relationship with the particular user may not be required toestablish a one-way public relationship between the user and the otherparty. One-way public relationships provide a mechanism for publicentities such as bands, social organizations, authors, businesses, andso forth to leverage the popularity of social networks to interact withusers (e.g., fans, members, customers), while overcoming privacyconcerns that may keep some users from establishing mutual friendrelationships with these public entities.

In contrast to the one-way public relationships, mutual friendrelationships enable reciprocal sharing between parties. Both parties ina mutual friend relationship may have to agree to the relationship.Further, with mutual friend relationships, each party is given access tothe other's social network and related information such as profile pagesor other webpages, status updates, friends lists, favorites items,pictures, comments and so forth. Mutual friends may be added to a listof contacts that a user may have for use with one or more services 116.Users may choose to create mutual friend relationships with people whothey know well, such as family members, classmates, relatives, and closefriends.

To create these and other social networking relationships, relationmodule 130 may operate responsive to interaction of a user with asuitably configured control. For instance, relation module 130 mayestablish social networking relationships by way of user accounts withthe service provider 102. The relation module 130 may be operable by aclient 104, by a service provider 102, and/or in combination thereof. Inparticular, user selections of the controls may be detected by operationof a relation module 130 of service provider 102 and/or a client 104.

When a user selection to add a favorite object is detected, relationmodule 130 may store or update relation data 124 associated with anaccount of the user to reflect a social networking relationship betweenthe user and the object. The relation data 124 for an object may includeat least data to identify the object and data to describe a type ofrelationship (e.g., one-way public, or mutual friend)

In one or more embodiments, configurable settings may be employed todetermine a type of relationship to be established when a controloperable to create a social networking relationship is selected. Profiledata 126 associated with user accounts may include settings to select adefault relationship type for one or more user actions. For instance, auser may configure account settings in their profile data 126 such thatone-way relationships are established by default for objects they selectas favorites. In this manner, a control can be configured to create aone-way public relationship in response to a single-click and withoutfurther action by a user. Alternatively, a user may instead choose toconfigure account settings to set mutual friend relationships bydefault.

In at least some embodiments, a user may configure account settings topresent an option to select a type of relationship when a controloperable to create a social networking relationship is selected.Accordingly, a dialog box, webpage or other suitable message may bepresented when a control is selected that provides an option to choose aone-way public relationship or a mutual friend relationship for acorresponding object. Thus, a relationship to an object may be createdin accordance with a user selection in response to an option to select atype of relationship.

In another example, a type of relationship to be established may bebased upon attributes associated with a selected object. For instance,objects may include a relation-type attribute that indicates whether theobject is public or private. An owner of an object may set therelation-type attribute to control the type of relationship that iscreated when users become fans of the object. When a user selects acontrol to become fan of an object, relation module 130 uses theattributes to determine a type of relationship to establish. In anembodiment, one-way public relationships are established for objectsdesignated as public. For other objects, the default may be to establisha mutual friend relationship that enables reciprocal exchanges. Thus, aone-way public relationship may be selectively established based uponthe attributes.

Consider again the example band profile page of FIG. 3. Assume thatSteve has configured his account with the service provider 102 toestablish one-way public relationships by default. In this case, aselection of the example add control 310 may automatically establish aone-way public relationship between Steve and “Foo Fighters”. Inparticular, when Steve selects the example add control 310 of FIG. 3, anentry for “Foo Fighters” may be created in relation data 124corresponding to an account of Steve's with the service provider 102.The relation data 124 that is created includes data to define therelationship as a one-way public relationship.

When one-way public relationships to objects are established, servicesare provided to the client using the one-way public relationships (block208). For example, a service provider 102 and/or content provider 106may make use of one-way public relationships in various ways to providerelated services to clients 104. By way of example and not limitation,this may include serving content to the clients based on the one-waypublic relationship (block 210) and/or providing status updatesregarding the object to client (block 212).

For instance, Steve may be able to post on a “Foo Fighters” socialnetwork page and obtain content and/or status updates related to “FooFighters” based on the one-way public relationship established in thepreceding example. Further, the one-way public relationship may beemployed by the service provider 102 to serve content and/or ads relatedto the “Foo Fighters” to Steve's account across various services 116.The one-way public relationships may also be employed by the serviceprovider 102 to push status updates for “Foo Fighters” to Steve'saccount.

By way of example, Steve may interact with a communication module 136 ofa client 104 to obtain a webpage 118 that corresponds to his own profilepage. Status updates regarding “Foo Fighters” may appear within Steve'sprofile page. A favorite item list may also appear that indicates thatSteve is a fan of the “Foo Fighters”. In addition, service provider 102may configure the profile page to include an advertisement in theprofile that relates to “Foo Fighters”, such as an advertisement for anupcoming concert, a similar band, a music retailer, or another suitableadvertisement.

Note once again that a mutual friend relationship is not establishedbetween Steve and “Foo Fighters.” Accordingly, “Foo Fighters” is notprovided reciprocal access to Steve's social network and relatedinformation. Further examples related to using one-way publicrelationships to provide content, ads, and/or status updates acrossvarious services 116 may be found in relation to the following figures.

FIG. 4 depicts a procedure 400 in an example implementation in whichone-way public relationships are employed to configure webpages outputfor interaction with one or more services. In at least some embodiments,procedure 400 may be performed by a suitably configured serviceprovider, such as service provider 102 of FIG. 1 having a relationmodule 130. In the discussion of FIG. 4 that follows, reference may bemade to the example webpages depicted in FIG. 5 and FIG. 6.

A client is authenticated to interact with services from a serviceprovider over a network (block 402). For example, the user Steve in theforegoing discussion may have a user account through a service provider102 that enables Steve to interact with a plurality of services 116 fromthe service provider 102. Steve may execute a communication module 136of a client 104 (e.g., a browser) to access his account andcorresponding services 116. As noted above, an authentication service ofthe service provider 102 may operate to authenticate users to accessservices 116. This may involve requesting credentials (user name andpassword) from the client 104 when Steve attempts access to his account.Upon successful authentication (e.g., verification of the credentials),the client 104 is permitted to access Steve's account and correspondingservices 116. In at least some embodiments, authentication to a singleaccount provides access to many service providers 102 and/or to anentire suite of services 116.

One or more one-way public relationships are ascertained between theclient and objects of a social networking service (block 404). Forinstance, relation module 130 of service provider may operate to examinerelation data 124 associated with an authenticated account to ascertainone-way public relationships corresponding to the account. The one-waypublic relationships may be established with objects in various ways,such as the examples discussed with respect to procedure 200 of FIG. 2.

Consider the foregoing example of a one-way public relationshipestablished by Steve with the band “Foo Fighters.” Relation module 130identifies this relationship based upon relation data 124 stored in theaccount database 120 for Steve's account. One or more service providers102 makes use of the ascertained one-way public relationships to providerelated content, ads, and/or updates in conjunction with a plurality ofservices 116.

In particular, webpages for interaction of the client with the servicesare configured based upon the ascertained one-way public relationships(block 406). The webpages are communicated to the client to enable theinteraction (block 408). For example, a service provider 102, by way ofservice manager module 114, may configure webpages 118 for communicationto a client 104 over a network 108. At least some of the webpages 118are configured based upon a one-way public relationship, such as therelationship that is ascertained between Steve and “Foo Fighters” in thepreceding example. The webpages that are configured based on the one-waypublic relationship may include pages output for interaction with asocial networking service, such as Steve's profile page and/or “FooFighters” profile page. Some example webpages corresponding to a socialnetworking service are depicted in FIG. 5 and FIG. 6, and discussed justbelow.

FIG. 5 depicts an implementation 500 showing an example webpage 118 thatis configured based upon one-way public relationships. The webpage 118in this instance is illustrated as incorporated within a user interface502 that may be provided by the communication module 136. For example,the communication module 136 may be configured as a browser operable toexpose the user interface 502 to enable interaction with one or moreservice providers 102 and corresponding services 116.

In the example of FIG. 5, the webpage 118 within the user interface 502is configured as a profile page corresponding to the user Steve from thepreceding examples. A comparable page may also be configured as otherwebpages, such as being a homepage of Steve's with a service provider102, a favorites page configured to present updates for items that Stevehas selected as favorites, a social network homepage, or other suitablewebpage provided via social networking service or other services 116.The example webpage 118 includes a variety of portions that areconfigured based upon a one-way public relationship between Steve and“Foo Fighters.” For example, a status update 504 appears in a “what'snew” section of the example webpage 118. The status update 504 may beinput by “Foo Fighters” on their own profile page. Service provider 102may make use of relation data 124 to configure the webpage 118 toinclude the status update 504. Note that a comparable status update mayappear on “Foo Fighters” profile page.

The “what's new” section of the example webpage 118 also includes a fanentry 506 that indicates that Steve has become a fan of “Foo Fighters”.A corresponding fan entry 506 may also appear in home pages, profilepages, and/or other pages configured for Steve's mutual friends. Sincethe relationship to “Foo Fighters” is one-way, however, a comparable fanentry indicating that Steve has become a fan may not appear on “FooFighters” profile page. In other words, status updates regarding Stevemay not be pushed to “Foo Fighters” or to other one-way relationshipsestablished by Steve. Status updates, such as the example fan entry 506,may appear in various webpages corresponding to Steve presented in thecourse of user interaction with a social networking service and/or otherservices 116 from one or more service providers 102.

Additional examples of portions of the webpage 118 that may beconfigured based upon a one-way public relationship include a suggestionlist 510, a list of favorites 512, and an advertisement 514. Thesuggestion list 510 includes one more suggestions that are based onone-way public relationships. The suggestion list 510 may enable serviceprovider 102 to suggest content based on items that a user has expressedinterest in. For instance, a fan of a band may also like music fromsimilar bands. In the depicted example a music suggestion for “The WhiteStripes” may be based in part on Steve's one-way public relationship to“Foo Fighters.” Likewise, the example list of favorites 512 includes the“Foo Fighters” in accordance with the one-way public relationship.Further, the example advertisement 514 provides an offer to buy “FooFighters” tickets and may be selected in accordance with the one-waypublic relationship. Thus, FIG. 5 illustrates some examples of portionsof a webpage 118 that may be configured based upon a one-way publicrelationship.

FIG. 6 depicts an implementation 600 showing another example webpage 118that is configured based upon one-way public relationships. The webpage118 in this instance is illustrated as incorporated within a userinterface 602 that may be provided by the communication module 136. Forexample, the communication module 136 may be configured as a browseroperable to expose the user interface 602 to enable interaction with oneor more service providers 102 and corresponding services 116.

In the example of FIG. 6, the webpage 118 within the user interface 602is configured as profile page corresponding to a book entitled “Blink.”FIG. 6 represents one example of a webpage 118 related to a publicentity and/or a social network object (e.g., the book) that may beconfigured to include portions based upon one-way public relationshipsto the object. In particular, a webpage for an object may be customizedfor an authenticated user to include portions corresponding to theuser's social network and one-way public relationships to the object.Examples of portions that may be customized include a fans portion 604,an object details portion 606, and an advertisement 608.

In the illustrated example, the authenticated user is Steve.Accordingly, the webpage 118 for the book “Blink” includes portionscorresponding to Steve's social network and the social network'srelationships to the object. For instance, relation module 130 may beoperable to indentify relationships of people in Steve's network toobjects and configure webpages output to Steve based on the identifiedrelationships. Relation module 130 may make use of user accounts andrelation data 124 to understand the relationships that exist betweenusers and objects.

In particular, the fans portion 604 shows friends of Steve who are alsofans of the book. The fans portion 604 shows that eight people inSteve's network are fans and also shows that six hundred and five otherpeople are also fans. The fans portion 604 is also illustrated asshowing comments on the book from fans in Steve's network. Note thatinformation related to Steve's network would not appear on a webpage forthe book “Blink” that is presented to another user who is outside ofSteve's network. Thus, the fans portion 604 may be configured toselectively include information regarding fans based upon one or moreone-way public relationships between users and the book “Blink.”

Note also that the owner of the webpage 118 (e.g., publisher and/orauthor) may be able to use one-way relationships to obtain anonymousdata regarding fans of the object. This anonymous data enables the ownerto at least track a number of fans of the object and include thisinformation on the webpage 118. For example, the object details portion606 is configured to list six hundred and thirteen fans of the book“Blink.” In addition, fans may provide ratings for an object, indicatethat the object is a favorite, and/or rank objects one to another. Forinstance, the example object details portion 606 depicts a four starrating for the book and shows that eight people have indicated that thisbook is their favorite.

The anonymous data that is made available through one-way relationshipsmay also include demographic information such as ages, location, income,education level, and so forth. Such demographic information may be usedby the owner and/or service provider 102 to better understand people whohave expressed interest in corresponding objects available throughsocial networking service.

The example advertisement 608 of FIG. 6 provides a promotion for booksand a link to an online retailer. The advertisement 608 may be selectedin accordance with one-way public relationships between Steve and thebook “Blink,” other books, and/or various other objects.

In at least some embodiments, content and/or ads for webpages served toSteve may be selected in accordance with the one-way publicrelationships to objects established by people in Steve's network. Thismay be the case even when Steve has not expressed interest in theobjects on his own. In this manner, a service provider 102 anticipatesthat Steve may like certain things based upon the interests of hissocial networking friends. Accordingly, the service provider 102 mayconfigure webpages for Steve with content and/or ads based on theone-way public relationships of other people in Steve's network.

Although some of the examples discussed herein relate to webpages forsocial networking service, webpages configured based on one-way publicrelationships may also include pages output in conjunction with otherservices 116, such as an email service, an instant messaging service, anInternet search service, and/or a productivity service to name a few.For example, an internet home page corresponding to Steve may beconfigured to include content related to “Foo Fighters” based upon theone-way public relationship.

In addition, service provider 102 may be configured to distributecontent related to one-way public relationships via various electroniccommunications including emails, instant messaging, text messages,mobile phone messages, voice mail, and so forth. In this example, theelectronic communications are configured to include content, ads, and/orupdates corresponding to one-way public relationships to an object. Forinstance, Steve may receive an email from the service provider 102 thatincludes a new posting made to the profile page of the “Foo Fighters”using the social networking service. This email may also includeadvertisements, song lists, promotions, and/or other content that iscustomized for Steve based on the one-way public relationship to “FooFighters.”

Having considered example techniques and user interface for one-waypublic relationships, consider now a discussion of an example devicesthat can be used to implement one or more embodiments.

Example Device

FIG. 7 illustrates an example computing device 700 that may implementthe various embodiments described above. Computing device 700 may be,for example, a client 104 of FIG. 1, a server of a service provider 102,or any other suitable computing device.

Computing device 700 includes one or more processors or processing units702, one or more memory and/or storage components 704, one or moreinput/output (I/O) devices 706, and a bus 708 that allows the variouscomponents and devices to communicate one to another. The bus 708represents one or more of several types of bus structures, including amemory bus or memory controller, a peripheral bus, an acceleratedgraphics port, and a processor or local bus using any of a variety ofbus architectures. The bus 708 can include wired and/or wireless buses.

Memory/storage component 704 represents one or more computer storagemedia. Memory/storage component 704 may include volatile media (such asrandom access memory (RAM)) and/or nonvolatile media (such as read onlymemory (ROM), Flash memory, optical disks, magnetic disks, and soforth). Memory/storage component 704 may include fixed media (e.g., RAM,ROM, a fixed hard drive, etc.) as well as removable media (e.g., a Flashmemory drive, a removable hard drive, an optical disk, and so forth).

One or more input/output devices 706 allow a user to enter commands andinformation to computing device 700, and also allow information to bepresented to the user and/or other components or devices. Examples ofinput devices include a keyboard, a cursor control device (e.g., amouse), a microphone, a scanner, and so forth. Examples of outputdevices include a display device (e.g., a monitor or projector),speakers, a printer, a network card, and so forth.

Various techniques may be described herein in the general context ofsoftware or program modules. Generally, software includes routines,programs, objects, components, data structures, and so forth thatperform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. Animplementation of these modules and techniques may be stored on ortransmitted across some form of computer-readable media.Computer-readable media may include a variety of available medium ormedia that may be accessed by a computing device. By way of example, andnot limitation, computer-readable media may comprise “computer-readablestorage media”.

Software or program modules, including the favorites module 130,communication module 136, service manager module 114, and other programmodules, may be embodied as one or more instructions stored oncomputer-readable storage media. Computing device 700 may be configuredto implement particular functions corresponding to the software orprogram modules stored on computer-readable storage media. Suchinstructions may be executable by one or more articles of manufacture(for example, one or more computing device 700, and/or processors 702)to implement techniques for one-way public relationships, as well asother techniques. Such techniques include, but are not limited to, theexample procedures described herein. Thus, computer-readable storagemedia may be configured to store instructions that, when executed by oneor more devices described herein, cause various techniques for one-waypublic relationships.

Computer-readable storage media includes volatile and non-volatile,removable and non-removable media implemented in a method or technologysuitable for storage of information such as computer readableinstructions, data structures, program modules, or other data.Computer-readable storage media can include, but is not limited to, RAM,ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digitalversatile disks (DVD) or other optical storage, hard disks, magneticcassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magneticstorage devices, or another tangible media or article of manufacturesuitable to store the desired information and which may be accessed by acomputer.

Conclusion

Although the techniques for one-way public relationships have beendescribed in language specific to structural features and/ormethodological acts, it is to be understood that the appended claims arenot necessarily limited to the specific features or acts described.Rather, the specific features and acts are disclosed as example forms ofimplementing the techniques for one-way public relationships.

What is claimed is:
 1. A processor device comprising: a service managermodule that is embodied on computer-readable storage media and which isusable to configure a webpage for output to a client over a network toprovide to a user of the client an indication of one or more other usersthat are part of a social network of the user and have establishedone-way public relationships, respectively, with another usercorresponding to an object of a social networking service available froma service provider; and a relation module that is embodied on thecomputer-readable storage media and which is configured to establish aone-way public relationship between the user of the client and the otheruser corresponding to the object without establishing a mutual friendrelationship between the user and the other user, the one-way publicrelationship being established in response to detecting a user selectionof a control that is presented on the webpage that is output at theclient in conjunction with the object.
 2. A processor device asdescribed in claim 1, wherein the one-way public relationship enablesthe client to obtain content and status updates regarding the object inconjunction with a plurality of services from the service provider.
 3. Aprocessor device as described in claim 1, wherein the relation module isfurther configured to store data to associate the user as a fan of theobject by storing the data in association with an account of the userwith the service provider.
 4. A processor device as described in claim3, wherein the account of the user enables access to a plurality ofservices provided by the service provider based upon a singleauthentication.
 5. A processor device as described in claim 1, whereinthe webpage is a social networking page configured for output to theuser in conjunction with the social networking service available fromthe service provider.
 6. A processor device as described in claim 1,wherein the webpage is a personal page of the user communicated over thenetwork for presentation by the client in conjunction with one or moreservices from the service provider.
 7. A processor device as describedin claim 1, wherein the service manager module is further configured tocommunicate status updates regarding the object to the client based uponthe one-way public relationship.
 8. A processor device as described inclaim 7, wherein the service manager module is further configured tocommunicate the status updates by at least configuring webpages foroutput by the client that include the status updates.
 9. A processordevice as described in claim 7, wherein the service manager module isfurther configured to communicate the status updates by at leastdistributing the status updates to the client as one or more electroniccommunications.
 10. A processor device as described in claim 1, whereinthe service manager module is further operable to configure the webpageto expose the control on the webpage in conjunction with the object ofthe social networking service responsive to rendering of the webpage bythe client.
 11. A processor device as described in claim 10, wherein:the service manager module is further configured to, responsive toreceiving over the network an indication of the user selection of thecontrol, reconfigure the webpage to present an option to select theone-way public relationship or a mutual friend relationship with theother user; and the relation module is further configured to establishthe one-way public relationship based upon a selection received over thenetwork in response to the option.
 12. A processor device as describedin claim 1, wherein the service manager module is further configured toprovide the user of the client access to post on a profile pageassociated with an owner of the object.
 13. A processor device asdescribed in claim 1, wherein the service manager module is furtherconfigured to provide an authentication service that is operable toauthenticate the client to an account of the user with the serviceprovider, wherein profile data associated with the account includes asetting that designates the one-way public relationship as a defaulttype of relationship, and wherein the one-way public relationship isestablishable based upon the setting included in the profile data. 14.One or more computer-readable storage media comprising instructionsthat, when executed by one or more processing devices, cause the one ormore processing devices to: ascertain one or more one-way publicrelationships between a user of a client and objects of a socialnetworking service that is provided by the computing one or moreprocessing devices, the one or more one-way public relationshipsascertained based upon relation data stored in conjunction with anaccount of the user; and configure webpages for interaction of theclient with a plurality of services based upon the one or more one-waypublic relationships, the webpages configured to provide an indicationof one or more other users that are in a social network associated withthe account of the user and which have established one-way publicrelationships, respectively, with the objects.
 15. One or morecomputer-readable storage media as described in claim 14, wherein theone or more one-way public relationships enable the user to expressinterest in the objects without establishing mutual friend relationshipswith owners of the objects.
 16. One or more computer-readable storagemedia as described in claim 14, wherein at least one of the plurality ofservices is configured to allow the user of the client to post on socialnetwork pages associated with owners of the objects based upon theascertained one or more one-way public relationships.
 17. A systemcomprising: memory and one or more processors configured to utilizeinstructions in the memory to implement: a relation module configured toestablish one-way public relationships between a plurality of clientsand an object corresponding to a social networking webpage of an ownerin response to user selections of the object received from the pluralityof clients; and a service manager module operable to configure webpagesoutput to one or more of the plurality of clients based on theestablished one-way public relationships by at least causing thewebpages to indicate which of the plurality of clients having theone-way public relationships with the object are also in a socialnetwork associated with the one or more of the plurality of clients towhich the webpages are output.
 18. A system as described in claim 17,wherein the one-way public relationships to the object are configuredsuch that the owner is not included in social networks corresponding tothe plurality of clients.
 19. A system as described in claim 17, whereinthe service manager module is further configured to provide theplurality of clients access to post on the social networking webpage ofthe owner of the object based upon the established one-way publicrelationships.
 20. A system as described in claim 17, wherein theone-way public relationships are established in accordance with anattribute of the object that designates a type of relationship toestablish for the object.